ISPs to Add Mobile Broadband to Service Plans

Internet providers like Comcast and Time Warner are beginning to offer mobile 3G service as a bundle with home Internet, reports the New York Times. The goal: undercut wireless providers like Verizon and AT&T, who sell such services for around $60 a month.

Comcast, which is an investor in the Clearwire mobile broadband company along with Sprint and Time Warner Cable, has added mobile broadband to their home service package for a mere $30 extra per month (a Clearwire mobile modem, above). According to the Times, Time Warner hasn't set their rates yet, but will probably price a similar bundle competitively. Comcast's total cost for the wireless-and-home bundle is $72, only $12 more than Verizon and AT&T's most popular mobile broadband services alone.

Other players are betting that customers are more interested in mobile broadband that's easy-come, easy-go. I have been testing Virgin Mobile's wireless broadband dongle, called Broadband2Go, which lets you pre-pay for a given amount of bandwidth (service expires after a certain period of time, so it's not great for only-in-emergencies use).

So far, the service is working admirably; the only oddity is their website. Try to learn more about Broadband2Go by Googling it, and you end up here, where you have to sit through a Rickrolling before being taken to their product page.